The Beatles or Elvis Presley. Debergs prog rock thread started me thinking and I thought it was a fairly easy choice until I talked to a few others about it and looked up some numbers. Now it seems like a toss up... although I know what my original gut feeling was.

The Beatles...
Best selling band in history... roughly 1 billion 600 million units sold
22 #1 singles world wide
7 grammys
10 films

My immediate thought was the Beatles. However, in thinking about it a little more, I'd have to go with Elvis. I think he broke rock and roll into the mainstream. The Beatles went nuclear with it, but Elvis was the guy who landed in Santo Domingo in his three small ships.

I don't think either are particularly bad, just at a loss to find them passion inducing. In both situations there were broad swaths of music I found vastly superior at that time [was a huge AC/DC, Nazareth, Sabbath, Metallica fan around the HS GF, and a huge Nirvana, GnR, NWA, Beastie Boys fan with the College GF].

I loved REM before they became popular (not because they were popular just because the music changed). After that "Losing My Religon" was about the only song that got to me deeply. "Everybody Hurts" was pretty good too.

Before that songs like "Don't Go Back To Rockville" and "Driver 8" got me to be a fan.

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"Baseball? It's just a game. As simple as a ball and bat, yet as complex as the American spirit it symbolizes. It's a sport, a business and sometimes a religion."

De Leppard was extrememly good at what they did. Pop Rock. It is what it is.

TBH, my beef with them was more the adoration of hot WT chicks [and my attendant insistence that my HS GF WASN'T one of those] than the music itself.

Their music, for me was just something that WAS, not bad, not great, just on the radio all the time.

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You ever notice how on stop lights, green means go, but on a banana it's the opposite? Yellow means "go ahead." Green means "slow down." And red means "Where the **** did you get that banana?"

I loved REM before they became popular (not because they were popular just because the music changed). After that "Losing My Religon" was about the only song that got to me deeply. "Everybody Hurts" was pretty good too.

Before that songs like "Don't Go Back To Rockville" and "Driver 8" got me to be a fan.

Awesome, you were into them in their college radio craze days then, eh? Wasn't it "Losing My Religion" that brought them from college radio fame to mainstream fame?

Awesome, you were into them in their college radio craze days then, eh? Wasn't it "Losing My Religion" that brought them from college radio fame to mainstream fame?

Yes that was the song. I loved REM well before and still loved them after... but they were better before "Religion" hit... overall. I hold nothing against any band who finds mainstream success by doing what they normally do though. Good for the rest of the world finally catching onto it.

__________________
courtesy of BoneKrusher

"Baseball? It's just a game. As simple as a ball and bat, yet as complex as the American spirit it symbolizes. It's a sport, a business and sometimes a religion."

Yes that was the song. I loved REM well before and still loved them after... but they were better before "Religion" hit... overall. I hold nothing against any band who finds mainstream success by doing what they normally do though. Good for the rest of the world finally catching onto it.

Monster was and is a great album imo. Sometimes I put "Ephonymous" on and let it play over and over all day. Yes it's a "greatest hits" album but the thing is those songs weren't actually "hits." They were just the most popular among the underground fans at the time.

__________________
courtesy of BoneKrusher

"Baseball? It's just a game. As simple as a ball and bat, yet as complex as the American spirit it symbolizes. It's a sport, a business and sometimes a religion."

Heh, one of our first dates she popped a cassette into her car stereo...Paul McCartney & Wings. I knew I had found my soul mate.

Lucky for you, this was when you were young and your heart was an open book.

Gah, groan.

__________________
You ever notice how on stop lights, green means go, but on a banana it's the opposite? Yellow means "go ahead." Green means "slow down." And red means "Where the **** did you get that banana?"